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When people find out I work from home, one of my pet peeves is that they assume my house is always clean because I am home all day and have time to keep it spotless. Do they really think I can spend all day cleaning while at the same time working a full-time job? And then let’s add a toddler into the mix. While my house isn’t always clean, I have come up with a pretty easy and effective way to keep my house somewhat clean. Clean enough that I don’t get embarrassed if someone comes over unannounced.

1. Put the House to Bed
   • Someone at my church mentioned this method of staying organized. Since then, my husband and I have tried implementing it in our lives and it has helped a lot. This entails picking the house up before you go to bed. For us, that means picking up the public areas of the house: kitchen, living room, entryway, guest/kid bathroom, and our bedroom (yes, I know it’s not a public space but it is one we clean up each night). We don’t worry about my office, my son’s bedroom, the laundry room, or the basement. These rooms are cleaned once a week but do not need to be picked up every day. Because we do this, we start with a clean slate every morning. This helps our main areas stay cleaner and in a more manageable state. This whole process takes maybe 15-30 minutes depending on how many dishes we have or how many toys are out. In all reality though, it only takes us a few minutes to clean up and saves us a lot of time later in the week because we don’t let things pile up.
2. Chore Schedule
   • When we were first married and only busy with school, we would do all our housework on Saturday. We would bust out the vacuuming, laundry, bathrooms, etc. all in one day. This worked fine in our small apartments but not so well in our house. Our house is bigger than our old apartments so it takes longer to clean. Then once our son came along, it seemed like we never had time to clean on the weekends and things were getting left behind. To fix this issue, we now do a little bit of housework every day. If it’s a chore that is easy to do while my son is awake, I will do it after I am off work and while he plays. If it is one that I don’t like doing while he is awake, my husband or I will do it after he goes to bed or before he wakes up in the morning. Here is what my schedule looks like right now:
     • Monday: Deep clean the kitchen (wipe down cabinets, clean appliances, clean sink, etc.).
     • Tuesday: Clean the fridge (wipe down the fridge and throw away old food), take out all trash in the house, and take trash bins to the curb.
     • Wednesday: Order groceries, put groceries away, put away trash bins, 5-minute clean up either in the garage or outside, and clean the master bathroom.
     • Thursday: Do yard work for our neighbor. Our neighbor across the street is a very dear friend of ours and her husband passed away last year. So, every week we take care of her yard so she doesn’t have to worry about it.
     • Friday: Clean the guest bathroom and do our yard work.
     • Saturday: Vacuum and steam mop the floors.
     • Sunday: Clean out junk/mail drawer in the kitchen.
     • Daily Items: Make the bed, run the dishwasher, wipe kitchen counters and table, clean the dog potty pad, and take out the kitchen trash.
   • Just because I stay at home all day, doesn’t mean that I do all of the housework. My husband shares in the load, as any partner should. To help us know what still needs to be done, we have a weekly planner on our fridge with all of the chores and laundry that need to be done each day. As we complete them, we check them off the list. Then when my husband comes home from work, he doesn’t need to ask me if I need help with anything; he can refer to the chart and do it without me asking.
3. Laundry Every Day
   • Along with doing housework every day, I also do a load or two of laundry every day. Every morning when I get up for work (and before my son is awake), I will start a load of laundry. I switch the load over either when it’s done, or when my son goes down for his nap. After my son goes to bed for the night, my husband and I like to put on a show to relax and fold the load of laundry. I hate folding laundry so doing it this way is easier since I am only folding one load at a time instead of four. It also helps prevent laundry from piling up. Here is my current laundry schedule:
     • Monday: Towels
     • Tuesday: Kid’s clothes
     • Wednesday: Floor mats and rugs
     • Thursday: Dog beds, blankets, toys, and snuffle mats
     • Friday: Whites and colors
     • Saturday: Bedding
4. Dishwasher Every Day
   • This seems like a no-brainer, but I figured it needed to be on the list. Run your dishwasher every day even if there aren’t a lot of dishes in it. We like to run our dishwasher at night so every morning we have clean dishes.
5. Make Your Bed Every Day
   • I don’t know why this one can be so hard for me to do, but it can. However, having my bed made in the morning makes me feel accomplished and the house just feels cleaner.
6. Robot Vacuum
   • This was a game-changer for us! Although we have a non-shedding dog and wipe him when he comes inside, he still manages to bring some dirt in with him. And of course, we have a toddler who gets crumbs all over the house. To combat this, we have a robot vacuum that vacuums our house every day at 1 am. Let me tell you, waking up to clean floors in the morning is so nice. It doesn’t do a super deep clean so I still like to physically vacuum my floors once a week, but it does help a lot.
7. Clean Your Pets
   • Let me start by saying that I know that I am in the minority here. I acknowledge that I am a strange dog owner because most people don’t do this. However, dogs (and animals in general) are dirty. My husband and I are clean freaks, so before our dog can come inside after going potty, we wipe his sanitary areas and paws (let me know if you want the recipe for my homemade dog wipes!). He’s gotten better now that he’s not a puppy, but he used to step in poop all the time. Or still have a dirty bum… I can’t handle the thought of having that in my house and on my carpets. Although he has improved, wiping the dirt off his paws still helps keep our carpets clean. Also, remember to wash your pet’s bedding and other items. They can trap a lot of odors!
8. Air Fresheners
   • Having a good-smelling house also makes it feel clean. I use some plugin scent boosters because I only have to replace them every month and a half and don’t have to worry about them in between.

My husband and I are full-time engineers and have a toddler and a dog. Needless to say, we don’t have a lot of time on our hands. Since I have started doing these things, our house has stayed pretty clean and I am not worried when people come over. I hope this will help you! Let me know in the comments if this has helped or if you have any ideas that have worked well for you!